They have an extreme excess of forwards....a few guys that play with a lot of jam. I hope MacT keeps Armstrong on speed dial. Any of Sobotka, Porter, Cracknell, or Reaves would do wonders for our 4th line.

Sobotka is a guy I would over pay to get, he's a shut down center in the making, imo.

They have an extreme excess of forwards....a few guys that play with a lot of jam. I hope MacT keeps Armstrong on speed dial. Any of Sobotka, Porter, Cracknell, or Reaves would do wonders for our 4th line.

I'd like Sobotka, can play center, pk, hit and cheap in offensively. Perfect 3rd liner.

Porter is probably the next best player and as exciting as the others are they are kinda 12-13th forwards.

Jagr is the hold up IMO. Gagner they have to have a ballpark figure +/- 1mil. But Jagr being the best RW available for free has to be stopping teams from pulling the trigger on Hemsky IMO.

Hemsky has to be part of it too, but they've said that they're not opposed to him playing here next year either.

If Gagner signs the Oil can go after their 3LW, maybe getting Prospal or Mueller once they know how much they can spend is what I think. I'd be leaning more towards Prospal given his history with Howson in CB.

Hemsky has to be part of it too, but they've said that they're not opposed to him playing here next year either.

If Gagner signs the Oil can go after their 3LW, maybe getting Prospal or Mueller once they know how much they can spend is what I think. I'd be leaning more towards Prospal given his history with Howson in CB.

I really don't see how we can't sign a 3LW anyway. Not like they will be getting a huge deal at this point. Prospal and Mueller are both guys that are 1-2 years.

Prospal would be a solid signing for our third line. Say we keep Hemsky.

Prospal - Gordon - Hemsky

Boom. Third scoring line, with some defensive responsibility and some size.

The skills brought with that line remind me of the younger Smyth-Horcoff-Hemsky. Hemsky still has the skill, Prospal has more legs than Smyth, and Gordon can provide defensive strength down the middle like Horc.

Another plus is that Prospal is fairly conscious defensively if I'm not mistaken, so Gordon will not be overwhelmed. Very balanced 3rd line, count me in on the Prospal train.

He shouldn't, but he probably will. My guess is $5M per over 5 years. Which is pretty on par with what second liner Cs are getting now. Plus he's giving up UFA years. With the cap going up $5M is fair and his contract would still be easily tradable if we manage to ever find a more suitable C

this is very likely the deal that he signs... it's an overpay of 500k IMO, but i think that is what he'll end up signing... maybe 1 year longer for 250k less, or one year less for 250k more, but it will end up being in that range

Since we have Petry, Smid, and SHultlz as right side defence, we have an option to trade one as part of an upgrade. I like petry and think he is improving, Shultz has little vlaue, so the obvious option is Smid

If we retained 1/2 of his salary, he become a very valuable trade chip. I think Philly might trade Coburn straight up for Smid under those conditions.

Petry - Coburn
Ferrence - J Shultlz
Belov - N Shutlz

why would we need to retain any of smids salary? he is signed to a VERY friendly cap-hit contract.... smids contract is likely the best non-entry value contract we have actually